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NGOs Feel the Squeeze from Bush Administration
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is wielding its financial clout to make charitable relief organizations that receive U.S. government money serve the interests of U.S. foreign policy, the organizations say.
In parallel, the U.S. Agency for International Development this month imposed new conditions on publicity activities when it negotiated a $70 million community action program in Iraq with five of the organizations, they say.
Three of the five organizations have reached agreements that require them to seek clearance from USAID before they have dealings with the media, they add.
rest of article at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030624/pl_nm/iraq_usa_ngos_dc_2
exerpt from http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,982977,00.html in the Guardian
The war on NGOs is being fought on two clear fronts. One buys the silence and complicity of mainstream humanitarian and religious groups by offering lucrative reconstruction contracts. The other marginalises and criminalises more independent-minded NGOs by claiming that their work is a threat to democracy. The US Agency for International Development (USaid) is in charge of handing out the carrots, while the American Enterprise Institute, the most powerful think-tank in Washington, is wielding the sticks.
This trend is rather disturbing to me. Especially since I am considering a career in this field, possibly with an NGO after I serve in the Peace Corps. It seems to me that by their very definition, non-governmental organizations should be quite separate from any government, US or otherwise. It seriously erodes their credibility as outsiders and as watchdogs. One can only hope that they'll decide to resist the pressure to become little more than mouthpieces for the government.